Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, speaking Saturday on Newsmax, recalled how slain conservative leader Charlie Kirk backed President Donald Trump from the earliest days of his 2016 presidential campaign, and said his influence and legacy will be honored at Sunday’s “Building a Legacy: Remembering Charlie Kirk” memorial service in Arizona.
“Way back in 2015, when then Mr. Trump was campaigning and he came to Arizona to do his first rally there, Charlie was there,” Lewandowski told “Saturday Report.” “Donald Trump was the underdog in that race, and not many people gave him a whole lot of credence or credibility in that race at the beginning.”
But Kirk, said Lewandowski, “was there because he knew that Donald Trump had something special and they developed a friendship, a bond that over the years only grew closer.”
He also noted Kirk’s role in organizing other major political moments, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement in the 2020 campaign. “It was such a moving experience,” he said. “It was all put together by Charlie and his team.”
Newsmax and Newsmax2 will provide special live coverage Sunday of the service, being held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the home of the Arizona Cardinals. Trump, Kennedy and several other key administration figures are expected to speak at the event, as well as Kirk’s widow, Erika, who has taken the helm of Turning Point USA, which he co-founded. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the service, which will begin at 11 a.m. local time (2 p.m. ET).
Meanwhile, the Glendale service has been designated as a top-level security event, but Lewandowski insisted that “the president will be safe, the spectators will be safe.” “The Secret Service is the leading law enforcement agency at this,” he added. “We already have one arrest that has now been widely reported, and we will make sure that safety and security are paramount and that people get to honor and remember Charlie in the way that he has deserved.”
Lewandowski also praised Kirk’s ability to engage respectfully across political divides. “Charlie was someone who talked with everybody,” he said. “He didn’t argue. He listened. He had an opportunity to have a dialogue.”
He added that Erika Kirk will carry her husband’s mantle “in an even more profound way.”
Lewandowski further criticized House Democrats who refused to support a resolution that honored Kirk while condemning political violence. “The Democratic Party is so outside the mainstream,” he said. “At the end of the day, what Donald Trump and this administration are trying to do is to provide a safe community for everybody. And we see that the Democrats in general are standing up for the felons and the people who are in the country illegally.”
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